Celebrity Sighting #Bald

The husband and I ventured out to San Francisco on a Sunday night for the live taping of The Adam Carolla Show. I am very happy to see a comedy show this year as my sad pathetic goal is usually to see one during the summer, but missed out. The show was as I expected. Adam was funny and it was great to watch instead of just listen to him do his thing. Husband got to see Alison Rosen live and man, she has a dazzling smile. He and I are still Teresa Strasser fans, (considering she hugged us at Laughs for Bald Bryan and all, it's gonna stay that way) but I want to bring him into the new direction of Carolla.

Here's the kicker: as we walked into the club, Bald Bryan was meeting up with some of his local people and I got to(at the expense of the ticket taker's patience) shake his hand, told him I listened to The Film Vault that morning and say thank you. I think it's the most important thing to do to my podcast people. They need to know my gratitude that they continue to put out wonderful entertainment.  

 

This hand shook Bald Bryan's hand. What has your hand done lately.....wait, don't answer that.

Allow me to put my Thanksgiving spin on it. I am grateful for hundreds of hours of free entertainment from incredibly funny people. God bless them, most of them. Not Penn Jillette, though. He gets atheist blessings.

Celebrity Sighting #.....Fuck It

Bad me. That's a very bad me. I took my husband to Lake Tahoe to see Penn and Teller for his birthday....back in September. I haven't posted it because (enter excuse involving being busy, being indifferent, or the trip itself was a disaster of sorts involving travel woes, arguments, panic attack threats, and overall pain and suffering.) I should point out that husband and I do not like to travel very much. He commutes about four hours a day during the work week and I have built myself a comfy fort of happy. 

He wants to stay home on the weekends and I'm inclined to agree because I strive to maintain stasis. It has reached the point where I don't even like to go to the movies because I can't pause to get the drink or food I want or to go pee because the excitement is too much for me. We did, however, see Skyfall last night and I thank the movie podcasts hosts I listen to frequently because they have given me just enough information to know it's fine to go pee in the stylish opening musical sequence.

I do, however, need to document that for his birthday, I took my husband to see two of his atheist heroes perform live. It was a struggle to get there and it was glorious to return, but for two hours there was a excitement we got to experience. We got a wonderful show an I had the extra added bonus of watching someone I love so much have such a fun time. And if you can, check out Penn's Sunday School. He's preaching love, and don't be cynical. He is.

With Respect to the East Coast

Before the most recent new stories coming out about the many lives lost, I heard very little about Hurricane Sandy. In fact due to the headlines I saw, I thought Sandy was the name of some political candidate making an ass of himself.  When only a few things were reported, I was hopeful that the news people were just blowing things out of proportion as per usual and thought we'd all get through this okay like with El Niño. (That is, I got through it okay. My apologies to those who had to deal with destruction or loss of life.) Naturally my thoughts went to another instance of tragedy though. Enjoy as you feel appropriate.

 Some forget this entire sketch was great. Too bad what I could find it was only Farley's part.

But Halftime is When I Need to Pee

So much work and practice to go into an amazing thing and it's all just ten minutes. I think this deserves so much more applause than the Superbowl halftime shows. Especially the Black Eyed Peas one. And these guys don't even get paid. Let's celebrate their hard work.

Hey Everyone! Don't Look at Me!

My boss once said to me that no one over thirty should have a non-normal ringtone. Of course this was over four years ago and the theme from The Office was what told me someone wanted to chat with me. Oh, how the times have changed and now everyone in my office over forty has a personalized tone while I just have a default repetitive ring.

It may have to do with how easy it is to set up a personal tone. At least that would explain why my boss has ruined the beginning riff of Baba O'Riley for me. But why have I switched to a ringtone that screams "Hey you damn kids, get off my non existent lawn!"? Well, for starters, The Office jingle was fun, but since I don't watch it anymore, I feel like it isn't right to have that be my ringtone. I'm no longer The Simpsons girl I was in my youth despite the fact that tune is timeless. For a little while I had the theme from Entourage but that was me acknowledging this bond my brother and I had enjoying marathons of the show. After a while I felt like a poser using it. Since I got the new phone, I stayed on the most basic tune I could tolerate, though I did dabble with Mah Nà Mah Nà from The Muppets. (That got annoying after three calls).

What I've come to understand about me and personalization is that I like to blend in the crowd. I don't understand personalized license plates, bumper stickers that tell me that you're a closed minded douche bag (I'm translating the anti non Jesus ones.), plate frames that share that you whored yourself to your husband to get the car I'm behind, and so on. For a little while I needed a self esteem boost and put my University Alumni plate frame on my car of I can feel good about one of my greatest life accomplishments. Now I feel like I'm just trying to hold on to some glory of my youth. 

My wardrobe consists of just one T-shirt with writing on it.  I'm mildly uncomfortable wearing it because the display of my fondness for the geek culture is a little too "Look at me and the writing on my boobs!". That being said, you can be sure that I would never get a pair of pants that have "Princess" written on my ass. (Unless I was attempting to being a slut hipster.)

When I was planning my wedding, people kept trying to tell me that I needed a theme. The blogs kept showing these elaborate wedding decorations, invites, and cakes around one unifying pop culture reference or something. Cute for internet infamy, but I'm not sure how much I would like to be married by Admiral Ackbar.

I have friends with personalized plates and they are a special nod to them. It has to do with them and those don't bother me as much as the ones that have a vomit inducing seven character combo that they HEART their GR8 kids or something about their lord and savior. I think we need to go back to the days of it's no one's business, I think I'll leave these little things inside my head. That being said, I need to recheck my privacy settings on Facebook before I go submit my resume. That picture of me with a gun may give people the wrong impression. Or the right one.

Ewww...Disney

While on a trip to Fry's and hovering by the podium while three people attempted to authorize my requested price matching, I realized my elbows were on a list meant for inventory purposes. Fry's Electronics has been the spot of many computer, software, game, and DVD purchases in my adult life, but for those who do not know, they also have a special section for adults. They have the black plastic protecting the eyes of children who wander in, but it's a little fun at times to go in and think "some people pay for this?"

So this inventory list was filled with, you guessed it, DVDs with some amusing titles. Being an adult and all, I tried to ignore it, but it was more difficult to ignore (what I was assuming) two DVDs that were close to the list that I decided were returns and needed to be put back on the shelf. Looking closer I realized that one was not meant to be in the special section but was actually a Disney title that could be translated into porn. The best part was underneath it was a porn title that was taken from a popular Disney title. (I know it was public domain, but it was popularized by Disney.) This was the laugh I got for a very frustrating day. I'll let you enjoy it as well.

Can you imagine this in the Disney Vault?

Samples and Swatches

I have to give my love to Todd in the Shadows. Since watching his wonderful commentaries on pop music, my music wish list has grown. And a lot of the time, it is full of music I'm a little ashamed that I want. But in addition to that, my game of music roulette has morphed from will we hear Adele or Lady Gaga first to taking a running tally of songs reviewed by Todd to see which one wins.

His recent review of Pittbull's Back in Time (I must point out that I had never heard of Pitbull until I saw the review of Give Me Everything) had me revisit a previous observation I had that about remakes or songs that sample. When I was younger, I considered this practice blasphemy. I was too naive to understand this is a long time practice and sadly I admit that I was well into high school when I realized that Queen is responsible for Vanilla Ice's we'll call "fame". But many songs that I liked that I thought were pure were remakes of lesser know artists (I think is the best way to go. Enhance a little known song and improve. Or place a flavor and make it your own. It is really difficult to improve that which is already considered to be wonderful and what is the point if it is a generic version. Yeah I mean you, MADONNA!) So now that I've become less judgmental, I understand remakes and samples have their place in the world.

I will point out however, that most of the time remakes and samples not done with care will end up ruining both songs for me. If you did listen to Back in Time, the guitar riff from Mickey and Sylvia's Love is Strange is great. I do not know why he decided to take the same chorus and having a hard time figuring out how "you're the one" works with the rest of the song. I bet it was like the free pile at a garage sale. Pitbull was already picking so even though he didn't need it, he already stole the riff so might as well take the chorus. Well, the techno beat added to the song and speeding it up is now what has been pounded into my head. I'm a little ashamed to admit I like the song, but my husband points out that I like the original song so the sum of its parts is good if not better. But now if I go back and listen to the original, it's too damn slow for my enjoyment. So Back in Time leaves something to be desired and Love is Strange is too slow to be enjoyed. Screw you Pittbull. And while I'm at it, fuck you Sean Kingston for killing Ben E. King and a mild slap on the wrist to Me First andtThe Gimmee Gimmees for Walking on Sunshine. I like that song, but their version isn't on the radio as much as their now too slow predecessor. 

Some do get it right. The Fugees' Killing Me Softly does not step on Roberta Flack's version. The Fugees changed the pace but since it did not speed it up the delicacy of Roberta Flack's version remains in tact. In fact, they sped it up in some spots and slowed it down in others so how can we be pissed? Well, my mom is, but that's okay.

Lesson is be original, people. You will not have this problem with an original idea. You'll have other problems, but still. I know that it is difficult to hear a declaration to be original from someone who is half ripping off Todd in the Shadows. Fine, I'll take off my mask (As far as you know).